The images above are strange attractors produced by systems of 3-dimensional
ordinary differential equations with quadratic nonlinearities. Following a
suggestion by Arne Dehli Halvorsen, they are made symmetric with respect to
cyclic interchanges of x, y, and z, so that they look identical when
projected on the x-y, y-z, or z-x axes. They are displayed as anaglyphs
which allow their three dimensional structure to be observed by viewing them
with red-blue glasses. The 11-character code in the upper left corner
of each image contains the coefficients required to replicate the image using
a scheme described in the book Strange Attractors: Creating
Patterns in Chaos. Also included is the
Power BASIC source code
SYMMETRY.BAS and DOS executable code
SYMMETRY.EXE used to search for and display these
images. See also a related technical note
on symmetric chaotic flows. The images are copyrighted by
J. C. Sprott. You may download them for your
personal use. You may distribute them for non-commercial purposes, provided
their source is acknowledged. Permission is required if you wish to use
them for commercial purposes. You can also view them
in slide
show format.